
I've never carried more than one cell phone
but I see lots of people doing it. Seems like it must be a massive hassle, having to make sure they are both charged, having to respond to messages on two different ones.
The world has more mobile phone subscriptions than people, according to the International Telecommunications Union's Facts and Figures for 2017. The annual data dump is billed as an informed estimate about the state of the world's telecommunications services, compiled after ITU uses its authority as the United Nations' ICT …
This must be a European thing. I almost never see people in the US carrying two phones, but from what I understand from people I work with in the EU it is considered normal. Maybe the stricter 'work life balance' type laws there dictate companies giving their employees phones so they can shut them off when they leave work?
I know a few people with work as well as personal phones; when they are 'on call' at work they have the work phone is on and the moment their 'on call' shift stops it gets turned off.
Also easier to chat& text with 'significant other' when you are sure that the phone doesn't have company installed spyware.
Most Kenyans carry a business phone and a personal phone (observed on a number of business trips to Nairobi). Here in the U.K, I like to keep the business and personal separate, so I carry the company provided Samsung S5 (loaded with Airwatch spyware, to access corporate email) and my Nexus 5X. Some of my colleagues treat the company provided phone as a perk, so just use that.
Dual SIM here as it's only free to call the same network on monthly payment plans or pre-paid promos, and cheaper to text the same network if using pre-paid. I hardly make any calls, but people can call me if they want (there are only 2 networks where I live).
I guess the researchers need to get out more and realise that non apple phones can and do have more than one sim in them. I would also point out that I have another sim card in the pocket wifi (backup internet connection), which I guess counts as another "subscription".
I see quite a few people carry a "dumb" phone because the batttery lasts for days, so that they can still communicate if the smart phone is dead (which it frequently is).
But of course the percentage doesn't sound as good if they actually think about it...
I saw that too and after a moment of WTF? thought maybe the author is using the European numbering system of swapping a comma for a point as used in most of the English speaking world. But that doesn't jive with the claim of more mobile phone accounts than people so I now have no idea what those numbers mean.